Terrible news from Middle Earth...

Bureaucracy and the ongoing legal & financial knot that is the already sunk ship of MGM have claimed their saddest victim yet -- Guillermo Del Toro has announced he has decided to leave The Hobbit. He will not be directing these films.

While Peter Jackson remains in place as producer and another director will be sought, this is unbelievably depressing news as there could never be such a perfect and visionary choice to bring these tales to life. Having already invested years of immeasurable creative energy and enthusiasm to the design and writing of these new Tolkien films, the project has continued to be beset with delays due to the beleaguered corpse of co-rights-holder MGM, having only recently announced they were scrapping any and all plans for a new James Bond film. It's now official: MGM is the enemy of genre fans everywhere.

“In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life,” Del Toro said. “After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wish the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director.”

Jackson says he'll meet with New Line and Warner Brothers honchos this week to start looking for a new director, adding: “We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave The Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone’s control – has compromised his commitment to other long term projects. The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years. Guillermo is one of the most remarkable creative spirits I’ve ever encountered and it has been a complete joy working with him. Guillermo’s strong vision is ingrained into the scripts and designs of these two films, which are extremely fortunate to be blessed with his creative DNA.”

I don't know about you, but I'm heading down to The Green Dragon to drown my sorrows...